<h2>My Principles</h2>

<h3>As a Listener</h3>

<p>Listening to music for me is, primarily, an intellectual activity. I can
  expect plenty of horrified people who are accustomed to the idea of music
  being emotional, spiritual or anything like that, and people who will say I am
  "cold", that I have no "feeling" and some crap like that. Well, here are the
  facts: intellectuality <em>does not negate</em> beauty, feeling, amusement and
  wonder. The biggest thing is, though, that I refuse to use, as a criterion of
  judgement, a notion so vague and imprecise as "emotion". "Emotion", to me, is
  many, many orders of magnitude more subjective than <em>intelligence</em>. You
  can't fake intelligence. Yes, you can try to fool the less cautious ones, but
  you can't fool everybody. But when it comes to <em>emotion</em>, though, you
  <em>can</em> definitely fool many people with an absolutely fake performance,
  just as much as you can fail to touch many people with a completely earnest
  performance merely because it is too different from what people expect.</p>

<p>Just consider, for a moment, the incredibly painstaking, meticulous and
  technical work that it takes to record a piece of music: it is not just a
  matter of the artist going there and "feeling it", and expecting the tape will
  capture that. It doesn't work that way: recording involved a lot of technical
  knowledge, a lot of hard, sometimes tedious work, many takes and retakes,
  countless laborious hours inside a studio, and even plenty of trial and error.
  How do you expect a process like that to capture "true emotion"? Yes, of
  course there can be a lot of energy, spontaneity and feeling in such
  performances, but they inevitably get buried under many layers of complex
  labour, not to mention unpleasant changes made to please the executives. So,
  if I consider the "feeling" and "emotion" such a subjective and vague, what is
  left? Simple: the creativity, the intelligence, the necessity of expression,
  in short, the artist's vision. And THAT is what matters to me; it matters not
  if the artist shed rivers of tears when recording the vocal take, because that
  might as well be a massive hoax; it also doesn't matter if the artist made the
  whole thing without seeming to emote at all, because maybe he was merely being
  absolutely professional and keeping his mind and heart focused. Yes, I
  <em>do</em> get touched and moved by music very often. and I <em>do</em>
  "feel" and "emote" when I listen to music, but those reactions are
  <em>mine</em> and exclusively mine, and I don't expect anyone else to relate
  to them. Those reactions are also defined by my own experience of life, my
  taste, my opinions and my beliefs. It is my belief that the artist only does
  roughly half of the job; the other half is completed by the audience; and THAT
  is the way I listen to music.</p>

<p>As for the purpose that I listen to music for, it's very simple:
  <em>fun</em>. Yes, just that. I have a nasty thing against the preaching that
  music is larger than life, that it is bigger than the world and more important
  than everything, because when you get down to the very core of it, we all
  listen to music to pass the time, to be entertained. Of course music can
  change our perceptions quite radically, can move us to joy or sadness or
  change significant parts of our lives, but those things are added bonuses;
  they are <em>secondary</em>, and you can never be sure when or how those
  things will happen. If you listen to every piece of music expecting a deeply
  spiritual experience, you're bound to be disappointed. Those things happen
  when you least expect them.</p>

<p>I'm not "diminishing" music by taking it as fun. I'm actually doing the
  opposite: I <em>value fun</em> a whole lot, and let's face it, we all do that.
  We all need fun, it is <em>necessary</em> for our lives, in whatever shape or
  form we can find it. I find fun through music, as well as many other things. I
  find fun in making and reviewing music as well, and those things are
  important. I cannot live without the fun that music gives me, and I don't take
  that as a bad thing at all! Music is fun, and it's fun for the brain; not for
  the heart. The heart is just a muscle, remember?</p>

<h3>As a Musician</h3>

<p>Art is, above everything, expression. And what do we express through art?
  Well... pretty much anything we want. Art can express an infinitude of things.
  But the problem is: will the listener understand what we are saying? My
  opinion is that there will <em>always</em> be someone who misunderstands what
  we do; and the only solution there is to that is to <em>take it as a good
  thing</em>.</p>

<p>Think: we have the choice to put words in our music, but words aren't always
  clear. Our spoken language isn't a perfect language, and when it comes to
  music, people can misunderstand it in countless ways: seeing irony where there
  isn't any, failing to see irony even when it's blatant, taking a joke at face
  value, seeing a serious comment as a silly joke and so on and on. My idea is
  that, instead of trying to communicate a "message" through music, my job is to
  <em>suggest things</em>. The brain is very sensitive to suggestion, and people
  who have active imaginations will have a field day with such suggestions and
  fly really high with them. The people who don't have such active imaginations
  probably won't go that far, but at least I'm giving them the opportunity to
  exercise them. With my music being instrumental, it's even easier to suggest:
  melodies, harmonies and sound do not have inherent meanings, even though our
  Western society has been educated to interpret such things as "major key =
  happy /minor key = sad". But there are many ways in which you can twist those
  notions and preconceptions, introducing atonality, ambiguity, contradictions
  and so on and on; this way, the suggestion becomes more complex and
  layered.</p>

<p>It isn't a perfect method, of course, because many people just go "what the
  hell is this?" and throw the music in the garbage bin without a second chance,
  but you can't avoid that. I'm not trying to adopt a perfect method, simply
  because there isn't any. My method just works for me, and I think it's, so
  far, the most open and versatile way to make music there is. I am happy with
  it.</p>

<p>So, what do I express with my music? I frankly don't know. All I know is,
  my music is not an image of myself. I don't expect people to recognise me
  through my music. Yes, parts of me are all over the music, as it is bound to
  happen, but I am not pouring my heart and feelings over what I do: I'm just
  saying things. Just <em>things</em>, things that will suggest images and
  sights to people. I want to point them at <em>the world</em>, not at myself.
  I want them to look at the window, not at my face. I'm not trying to attract
  attention, but to push it away. My music speaks about people, about
  characters, real and imaginary places, things that <em>you</em> may feel, but
  that not necessarily I feel or felt. I don't try to reflect my feelings and
  thoughts through the music, as I feel that would make it way too...
  restrictive, I guess. I want my music to be for <em>everyone</em>, not just
  for people who I believe can "relate" to me.</p>

<p>So, how do I come up with the compositions? Basically I don't throw out any
  ideas on the grounds that "I would never do this!". Say, if I come up with an
  idea for a <em>samba</em>, I will try to do it. If come up with, I don't know,
  a <em>hip hop</em> idea, I will chase it. I only throw out ideas that I
  consider to be truly crap. If I feel something is way too difficult for me to
  tackle, I will put it for later. But the thing is, I'm ready for anything, to
  change paradigms and styles anytime. I may make an album exclusively of
  abstract electronic music, then put out a piece for a tango orchestra, or, I
  don't know, a synthpop album. I don't discard any possibilities! As I listen
  to dozens of different things, I make myself ready to absorb the absurd and
  the extreme and to play around with it. That's how I do stuff, and it suits me
  just fine.</p>

<h3>As a Reviewer</h3>

<p>I'm not a clown, I'm not a comedian or a teller of jokes, so I'm not here to
  make you laugh. Yes, I do have a sense of humour and I may throw out a joke or
  two in my reviews, but those are merely a tangent of my purpose here. I'm here
  to talk about the music. If you want funny and hilarious texts, you can visit
  Mark Prindle, who is brilliant and a <em>truly</em> entertaining and brilliant
  writer, who is usually very succint about the music and sometimes barely
  speaks about it! But as much as I appreciate him and learn from him, that's
  not what I'm here for. I'm not good at that, so I won't tackle it. If I seem
  too serious or overbearing, well, I guess there is not much I can do. If my
  writing, though, is real crap and boring to read, I will certainly try to
  improve, as I'm not here to bore you!</p>

<p>In general, I'll try to speak to people who are not familiar with the stuff I
  am reviewing. I won't exclude those who are, but my reviews won't start right
  away speaking to people who already know the music by heart. If you've never
  heard [a]Abbey Road[/a] or [a]Dark Side of the Moon[/a], don't feel rejected
  from this site! Read right away, that's what I'm here for. If, on the other
  hand, you've heard every obscure and hard-to-find Stereolab song a thousand
  times and there's nothing new you could possibly learn about them, fear not!
  I'm also willing to share my opinions with you.</p>

<p>I try not to refer to other reviewers as well. This isn't a scientific paper,
  in which I have to provide dozens of references that show that I'm not making
  up crap on the spot; this is an OPINION website, and if I feel that other
  reviewers do a better job than me and I can't add anything of my own, I
  wouldn't be writing at all. I'm not neglecting or excluding their opinions;
  if you want to read them, go ahead! But I'm not saying that I will NEVER quote
  what they say; I may do it when it's extremely pertinent, but overall, this is
  <em>my</em> site.</p>

<p>I will talk openly about MY perceptions, MY opinions and MY beliefs regarding
  the music, and I Won't impose on my self the effort of adding "IMHO" after
  every sentence. Keep in mind these judgements are all PERSONAL opinions, even
  when I say them as if they were facts. Don't feel offended if I say something
  that completely contradicts everything you think. If, however, commit any
  factual mistakes, <em>please</em> correct me! I will be highly, highly
  thankful, as I don't want my reviews to be dead wrong or inaccurate, and I'm
  always open to accept contributions. And, yes, DO contribute! Even if you want
  to say the exact opposite of what I say. All opinions are welcome, as long as
  you don't insult anybody, such as myself or other reviewers. I will reserve
  myself the right to cut off any offensive reviews from myself; saying Mike
  Oldfield is a pretentious ass is not offensive; saying Michael Stipe is a
  fuckin' faggot who should die for his faggotry IS offensive and I will haunt
  you in your sleep. I will NOT, however, and I repeat, <em>I will NOT</em>
  remove comments simply due to disagreeing with them.</p>

<p>All in all, I'm here to have fun and I hope everyone has fun here as well.
  That is my main principle.</p>

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